Medical Students

Baroness Masham of Ilton Excerpts

Wednesday 26th October 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I think it will be helpful if I quote from the Health Secretary’s speech at the Conservative Party conference, talking about overseas doctors. He said:

“They do a fantastic job and the NHS would fall over without them. When it comes to … EU nationals, we’ve been clear we want them to … stay post-Brexit”.

Let us be absolutely clear: we want overseas doctors from the EU or elsewhere to stay here post-Brexit.

[Baroness Masham of Ilton (CB)]

My Lords, how many medical students drop out during training? How many, when qualified, do not take up medicine and go into other specialties?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, the attrition rate for students at medical school is about 5%. Some of those leave for medical reasons and come back subsequently, so the figure will be less than 5%. I do not have the drop-out rate for doctors who are further advanced in their training but I will find out and write to the noble Baroness.